Herald Café: What is keeping you busy
currently?
Kabir Bedi: The year that went by kept
me very busy: I did five films, that included ‘Mohenjo Daro’, a Telugu film, a
Malayalam film for which I received the best villain award, an Italian-English
film and a film from the West Indies. This year, I am trying to take as much
time off as possible, to get some writing projects done. Other than that, I am
doing a tour of the US starting mid-March, with one of the great disciples of
the late Jagjit Singh, in memory of the legendary singer and Om Puri. Having had
a international career all my life, based in the US, Asia and Europe, etc,
there’s always somebody somewhere that wants something from me, which is very
nice at this stage of my life. I haven’t really firmed up too much; I am trying
to keep things as clear as possible to get stuff done. Of course, things come
up and if you get an offer that you cannot refuse, then you cannot refuse it.
But I have refused a few offers that I could refuse, which is also nice.
HC: You have been enjoying quite a
bit of fandom in Europe. What has the experience been like?
KB: What launched me to stardom in
Europe was my TV series called ‘Sandokan’. It became the most successful TV
show in television history in Italy and remains unbeaten till date. It is nice
not to be only known in a country, but also to be seen as a cultural icon
because of the portrayal of this character, ‘Sandokan’. I must admit, I am the
lucky one because Sandokan was created through the labour of the entire team of
writers, directors, cinematographers, etc, but I reaped the benefit because I
was Sandokan, I was the one seen on TV. The miracle of that, for me, is that the
success has continued for 40 years. Even now, they play it regularly on TV. So,
everyone, from grandmother to grandchildren, knows you. I do not know of any TV
show in the world which, 40 years later, seems as contemporary as the day it
was released. That opened the gates of the West for me.
HC: You recently played the emperor
Shah Jahan in a play, titled, ‘Taj’, by Canada’s award-winning playwright John
Murrell. What was the experience like?
KB: It was a phenomenal play of the
standard of a Broadway production. I am actually working to get that here
towards the end of this year or the beginning of the next year. The experience
was extraordinary, a) because I love theatre, and b) the writing of this play
was extraordinarily good. The writing was so beautiful and poetic, and yet it
was prose, that even though I was on stage for 90 minutes straight, if I knew
the beginning of the line I knew the whole paragraph. That is how beautifully
the words flowed.
HC: You also played Shah Jahan in the
Bollywood film ‘Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story’ earlier in your career. How
was playing the same character in theatre, different?
KB: It was an extraordinary experience
because I had delved into the character and lived it for so many months while
shooting for the film. Then to do it again, this time on the stage, makes me
feel like I know Shah Jahan fairly well by now (laughs). The setting of both,
the film and the play, was practically the same. Shah Jahan was imprisoned by
his son Aurangzeb. He (Shah Jahan) could see the Taj Mahal across the river
from the prison but he couldn’t go there. So that is the situation that the
play and the film deals with. The biggest difference was that when Shah Jahan
went into being the younger version of my character, they had a younger actor
playing the character in the film. In the play, even though there is a younger
Shah Jahan, that entire narrative is through me. Even when the younger Shah
Jahan comes on, he comes on as a part of a Kathak troupe that actually performs
what he is talking about. When the older Shah Jahan goes into the role of the
younger Shah Jahan, even though outwardly he appears older, his body language
changes and he becomes the younger Shah Jahan talking about the past. It’s more
in-depth.
HC: In what capacity are you
participating in Difficult Dialogues 2017?
KB: Difficult Dialogues takes up one
major theme of national importance and people from various disciplines focus on
this. I am hosting the final session, ‘India: Health Of The Nation’ that will
examine the conduct of private healthcare in India and explore what needs to
happen to strengthen the country’s public health system. It is a very
distinguished panel consisting of Sachin Pilot, Farooq Abdullah, Pavan K Varma,
Surjit Bhalla and Varun Sahni. My job is to look at the wider picture of health
in India and to see what I can draw from these brilliant minds on to the
subject.